There is always something new coming into Suzanne's Quilt Shop. It's like Christmas all year-round when our deliveries arrive. Lots of new quilting gadgets come in constantly, as well as new fabrics. One collection of fabrics that has really caught our eyes here in the shop, and has been a real hit with our quilters here in person and online has been the Aster Manor collection.
With its subdued pinks, buttery yellows, creamy ivory, rusty reds, and dusty browns, this collection is a beautiful selection of color as well as pattern. The collection includes a great variety of large prints, tone-on-tones, leaves, small prints, florals, plaids, stripes, paisleys, and even a great amount of incredible homespuns. Because we have all fallen in love with Aster Manor so much, we have created a couple of spectacular samples to show it off.
Our own Tonya was the first to create something from this collection. The At Home With Aster Manor Quilt comes in two sizes: a smaller 66" x 72", or a larger 86" x 94" quilt with a large floral border. As with all of our quilt kits, we leave it up to you to select the fabric for a backing that suits your style best.
Jennifer was our second girl to finish a sample in the Aster Manor fabrics. She sewed the Fun on the Run quilted jacket, and it's very pretty alongside the fabrics in our shop display. After pinning, sewing, and ironing all of the strips and strips and strips (whew!) of material, Jennifer sewed them all together and built the jacket!
Any customer can come into our shop or visit us online to purchase these fabrics and the patterns that made the samples we're displaying.
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On the second Saturday of every month, Suzanne's Quilt Shop hosts what we call Saturday Sampler. This month's meeting was on November 14th. It's a fun, busy, exciting morning filled with the reveals of our newest fabrics, kits, notions, and other goodies as well as a bit of Show-and-Tell by quilters who come. Perhaps the biggest perk to being a member of our Saturday Sampler club is the quilt you get to make, and Suzannes hands-on tutorial on how to do it! To join, all you need to do is sign up and pay your $6 membership fee. Each month a new block is introduced, and if you show up with last month's block finished, this month's block is free! During the gathering each month, Suzanne sits at her sewing machine as quilters look on and learn Suzanne's techniques for finishing the next block.
Saturday Sampler was so popular in the past, we had to plan for two separate groups! Our first shift comes tumbling through the doors at 9:30am while the second shift starts at 10:30. We always begin with Show-and Tell.
After everyone has had the chance to show off finished quilts, it's time for the ever-exciting new reveals. Suzanne loves the reveal of our newest products. Here, we got a snapshot of Suzanne showing off one of our newest fabric collections, Covey Toile. Just look at the captivated quilters!
Now it's time to get down to business: making this month's block. This month, the quilters also got their fair share of triangles on a roll to be sure all the pieces of this block come together perfectly. This is Suzanne explaining the triangles on a roll to those quilters in the group who had never used them before. You're always learning new quilting techniques at Suzanne's!
Next month's Saturday Sampler will obviously be the last one of the year, since it'll be December. :) We will be meeting at 9:30am and 10:30am on December 12th. The 2010 (!!!) year of Saturday Sampler is planned to start in February. For event details and class information, you can always visit the calendar on our site at suzannesquilts.com!
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It's always exciting here in the shop, and we never know which customer is coming in next or what he or she might bring in to show us.
Yesterday afternoon we had a few exciting projects show up. One of our customers Julie Adams brought in a very exciting quilt that she had finished. It was a brightly-colored quilt made from fabrics that were just about every color of the rainbow. The theme of the quilt was airplanes, and it had two main sections: one that was an aerial view of planes, and one that was a view from the ground. One detail that made this quilt even more special was the hand-embroidered message that Julie had sewn across the wingspan of one of the bright yellow planes: "MKA 2009 JPA," and just below that, "I <3 U." How sweet! We couldn't wait to take a picture of the quilt and share it with everyone out in blogland.
Another of our local quilting ladies, Brenda, was in yesterday and today to work on our HandiQuilter here in the shop. Brenda has taken our class with Suzanne on how to use the HandiQuilter, so she was ready to get to work on putting this quilt together and getting it finished. All of the girls in the shop gushed over how beautiful the hues of blue and cream worked together to create the quilt. We all tried convincing Brenda to let us keep it! She stood her ground, though, and said proudly that the quilt was a gift for her son for Christmas (shhhh, don't tell!). While Brenda was working, we snapped some pictures of her at the HandiQuilter getting the quilt ready for the next row of quilting. We also got her working on pinning the edges of the quilt once she had taken it off the HandiQuilter. Now she's ready to do some stitch-in-the-ditch and complete the quilt with binding. What a lucky son Brenda has, for her to be making such a beautiful quilt for him!
We are always looking forward to the next quilter bringing in the next in-progress project or the next finished project. Because we have so many Show-and-Tellers coming in so frequently, we're looking forward to making this Show and Tell a regular post to the blog! So, come on quilters! Show us the projects you're working on!
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We have officially survived our Second Annual Quilt Escape! For a second year, the retreat was held in Norman Park, Georgia at the Georgia Baptist Conference Center. It's a beautiful facility with plenty of space for all 50 participating ladies to spread out and quilt their hearts out. We were fed well (lots and lots of good Southern cooking), many ladies made new friends, and everyone enjoyed the felowship.
Suzanne and Shirley were the two representatives from Suzanne's Quilt Shop just like last year, and they both had a great time presenting this year's participants with their mystery quilt kits. The theme this time around was: Making a Quilt is Easy as Pie! The girls back at the shop had a great time packaging the kits into an extra special package for each lady this year. The mystery quilt kits were kept secret from retreat participants until the grand reveal on the weekend of the retreat, so to be sure each quilter would be elated with her finished quilt, we asked: "Do you prefer Cherry Pie, Caramel Chocolate Pie, Key Lime Pie, or Pumpkin Spice Pie?" This had the retreat-goers wiggling for months in anticipation of the retreat weekend's project. (Suzanne loves to be sneaky!) Final presentation of the "pies" had the quilters elated and ready to sew, especially when Suzanne and Shirley presented the pie themed quilt kits while wearing Chef's hats and aprons!
Of course, the weekend started with a warm and friendly meet-and-greet in the grand entryway of the facility. But not too much time was spent just sitting around and chatting--these ladies came to sew for the weekend, so everyone got settled in pretty quickly:
There were a few opportunities to be distracted from "making pie" and everyone loved each chance to appreciate another quilter's work. First there was a Show-and-Tell of past projects. Quilters brought their finished projects from last year's Retreat, some brought projects they had worked on throughout the year, and one quilter even showed off a beautiful Christmas tree skirt.
Other than breaks for delicious meals made by the spectacular Convention Center Kitchen Staff, the next distraction to stop the quilters' machines from buzzing was a block contest. Each lady brought a block, and three winners were selected from the whole lineup. Everyone did a beautiful job on their Autumn-inspired blocks, and they were all so festive lined up next to each other.
After more quilting, chatting, and having an over-all good time, another contest began: APRONS! The quilters were encouraged to bring an apron they had made and model it for the contest. There were many very distinct and pretty aprons sewn--such a creative bunch of ladies! In the end, three aprons were selected as winners. What better sewing project to judge than aprons for a pie-themed weekend?
The 2009 Fall Quilt Escape was such a hit, we already have quilters signed up for the retreat coming in the Spring of 2010. With only 50 spots to fill, this 2009 Fall Quilt Escape list was overflowing before we knew it and many quilters were lined up on a waiting list. Don't miss your chance to be in on the fun when Spring comes around! Come into the shop or call us to reserve your spot now.
Cherry Pie: Pumpkin Spice Pie:
Key Lime Pie: Caramel Chocolate Pie:
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